much. we do appreciate it, and we're glad to see you're back home and that you are safe. and we look forward to many more conversations that are focused on exactly what needs to change in this country so we don't hav. thank you so much for being with us. we do appreciate it. >> this is an msnbc special presentation. >> some of the images and language in the following program are graphic. and might be disturbing to some viewers. while the images have been available across the internet, they have not been seen nationally in their entirety on nbc. 50 years ago, the nation lost an extraordinary leader. >> the time is always right to do right. >> a warrior for justice. >> we ain't going to let nobody -- >> his fight is our fight. >> it was one of those fateful

intersections in history that was very important. >> we are here to say that we are not afraid. >> one of the reasons why martin luther king was so successful was that he understood television. >> thank you. >> he understood that imagery was everything. >> show the pictures. show the images. >> violence is that visual. it prompts people to action. >> shameful, arresting children, for what? the right to vote. >> dr. king understood you need to make people own their shame. >> their story of struggle and triumph. >> they took them into corridors and alleys and began beating them. >> is the american story, a story still being told -- >> right here. >> dr. king said you have to create a crisis so that the power structures are forced to

answer. >> we want the world to see! >> how are you? >> good. >> the reason i pulled you over your brake lights are out. >> on july 6th, 2016, outside st. paul, minnesota, officers pulled over 32-year-old philando castile on a routine traffic stop. >> do you have a license. >> i do have a firearm on me. >> don't reach for it then. >> don't full opull it out. don't pull it out. >> stay with me. we got pulled over for a busted taillight in the back. and the police just -- he's covered. he killed my boyfriend.

>> just 40 seconds after the last shot was fired, her 4-year-old daughter in the back seat, castile's girlfriend diamond reynolds began streaming video live on facebook from her cell phone. while the world watched. >> the officer just shot him in his arm. >> get the female passenger out! >> get out of the car now with your hands up! exit now! keep them up! keep them up. >> you got my daughter? you got my daughter. >> face away from me. >> we know how the story goes. he was reaching for the gun, i had to shoot him. we know that. she knew that. she refused to let that be the narrative. she is going to force people to bear witness to this and to see something that is largely been rendered as being invisible in this country. >> it is okay. i'm right here with you. >> before the world ever heard of philando castile or any of the other young black men whose public killings awaken the consciousness of the nation, there was 14-year-old emmet

till. and his grieving mother, mamie. >> live streaming your loved one's death is a 21st century version of what emmet till's mother did. she live streamed her son's death. >> mamie till's stunning decision to publish a photograph of her murdered son emmet forced the country to confront the horror of racism and set in motion the modern civil rights movement. >> americans can tell you when john f. kennedy was assassinated, when neil armstrong walked on the moon. many african-americans, they remember that moment when they saw emmet till's photograph. >> i don't know a black person who doesn't know the name emmet till. i don't know a single black person who hasn't seen that

image. >> we were the same age. same age. it was horrifying. >> it was my 9/11. it was basically, you know, an act of terror. >> in 1955, mississippi was ground zero for racial terror in the american south, when 14-year-old emmet till arrived from chicago to visit his great uncle mo wright in a town called money. he was a big city kid, he wasn't familiar with the dark heart and social thaboos of the jim crow south. >> black people and white people interacted only on a transactional basis. but they were largely two different worlds. you stick to your own kind, we'll stick to our own kind. >> one day, emmet and his cousins go into town and they go to a little grocery store, bryant's grocery store. and something happens inside.

according to carolyn bryant, the wife of the proprietor, the one who ran the store, emmet till alone in the store with her comes on to her. and whistles at her. >> four days later, bryant's gun toting husband and brother-in-law went looking for the boy at his uncle's house. >> and mos wright begs him to leave him alone, please don't take him. but they take him and he never returns. he's thrown into the tallahatchie river with a 70 pound cotton gin fan attached to his neck with a barbed wire. >> a few days later, a boy fishing in the river discovered a body beaten beyond recognition. >> the body was so badly damaged, we couldn't hardly tell who he was, but he happened to have on a ring with initials.

>> in chicago, emmet till's grief-stricken mother mamie waited at the railroad station for the casket containing her son's body to arrive. >> mamie till is essentially confronted with a sealed wooden casket nailed shut by the sheriff, it was mamie till who demanded that that box be opened so that she could see her child. she kind of staggers in and sees this body, and she can't believe her beautiful child is this lump of flesh that is lying in this casket. and she said to herself, the country's going to have to confront this. i'm not going to suffer in this by myself, if this is what you're going to do to black boys, you're going to look at it. >> not only did mamie insist on keeping emmet's casket open for the funeral, she invited

photographer david jackson from the weekly black news magazine "jet" to take pictures of his body. >> she and the editors of "jet" magazine made the decision they were going to display this for the country. >> all issues of "jet" sell out. they published it again the next week. all issues sell out. and it is only in the black press, owned by johnson publishing. the white press didn't even see it at first. >> it was quite a controversy about why would "jet" print this terrible picture? they wanted to make a point. just to show you how bad things were. >> mamie till had something very important to teach. show the pictures. show the images. she wanted the world to see the ravages of racism, the brutality of bigotry. >> i believe that the death of

my son can mean something to the other unfortunate people all over the world, then for him to have died a hero would mean more to me than for him just to have died. >> mamie till, i think, got more viscerally than anyone that if she didn't show those pictures, he would just be another black boy gone dead. >> roy bryant and his half brother j.w. mileum were arrested and accused of murder. their trial was held in sumner, mississippi, just two weeks after the funeral. although black reporters were kept separate, it was one of the first times in the south that they were permitted to sit in the main courtroom with the rest of the press. >> instead of being up in the balcony, frequently called the crow's nest, they were allowed

to sit at a table on the ground floor, not that far from where the white press was seated. that was considered a breakthrough. >> among the journalists covering the trial were "jet" reporter simeon booker and freelance photographer ernest withers. withers' photograph of mos wright on the witness standpointing standpoint ing to the murderers. >> the ernest withers photo of moses wright standing up at the trial of till's murderers is taken surreptitiously. i think that's the number one image that most people remember. >> the trial lasted four and a half days. one journalist called it the first great media event of the civil rights movement.

>> i've just received information of an acquittal in the murder charge of emmett till. >> after little more than an hour of deliberations, the all white jury acquitted both defendants. >> it took 67 minutes and one juror said, it wouldn't have taken us even that long, except we stopped to have a soda. >> while the defendants escaped punishment, they would not escape judgment. after the trial, this man, journalist william bradford huey, persuaded them to sell their true story for $4,000. huey sold the story to "look" magazine. it is the ultimate insult to injury, having just been exonerated in this sham of a trial, only to with no fear of double jeopardy tell their

story. >> yeah, we did it. here's how we did it. deal with it, america. remarkably, 62 years later, in 2017, emmett till's accuser carolyn bryant recanted much of her story, admitting she lied did what happened that day in the store. "look" magazine never published the graphic photographs of emmett itill's mutilated corporation and fcorpse and few saw them at a time. but an image showed how violence could bring about change and he would force the nation to face them. when we started our business

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is this just a test that we're getting ready? >> that's what we're doing. next time it will be for real. >> this is rare early footage of the 27-year-old man who before long would become a legend. but in 1956, martin luther king jr. was a little known minister and the leader of a bus boycott in montgomery, alabama, that started when activist rosa parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. >> this is a nonviolent protest using the method of passive resistance. >> martin luther king was a man of huge thoughtfulness about the strategy that he had asked those

who followed him to use. and that strategy was that in the face of violence, you have a moral high ground if you did not return violence with violence. >> negro passengers have been humiliated, intimidated. >> reporter: at first the young minister who went by the unassuming name of m.l. king was only covered by black journalists writing for black papers. >> in particular, "the birmingham world," a black newspaper and its editor emory jackson. he writes about long before anyone else that dr. king is invoking gandhian principles. he becomes referred to in the black press as the black moses. the white editors, they were just living in a different world. >> the majority press, the white press basically ignored

african-americans and not just episodes of violence against them, but achievements, anything to do with their daily life. basically flat out ignored them. >> they didn't even often use the names of black people because that would be a sign of respect. it's galling now to look at the level of disregard and oblivion that was in the media at that time. >> so long as you sit in the back, you have a false sense of, inferiority, and so long as you let the white man sit in the front and push you back there, he has a false sense of superiority. >> montgomery bus boycott. unbelievably successful from the very first day, and it took weeks to get a national reporter in there. i think it was six weeks before a news magazine came in and then 12 weeks before a major newspaper came in.

>> we have no moral charge but to continue the struggle. not for ourselves alone but for all of america. >> king developed a strategy of resistance that was designed to challenge the status quo, while never making white america feel threatened. he consciously set about creating a character palatable to all of america. martin luther king understood that if you're only telling this story, you know, among the black press, among black people, you're preaching to the choir. you've got to get outside the church. >> what special instructions or advice have been given to negro people? >> if there is violence, that it must not come from negro people. >> king's efforts to woo the media started to pay off. soon, king was the story. and the story was the movement. >> for more than 12 months we,

the negro citizens of montgomery, have been engaged in a nonviolent protest. >> the boycotters faced death threats and persecution. but under the leadership of dr. king, they mounted a successful and peaceful campaign. facing financial crisis and failing in the courts, the city of montgomery relented and ordered that black passengers be allowed to sit anywhere. >> america likes a winner. the media loves a front-runner. one could argue that if dr. king's first foray into national television had not been a success, would the media have turned around and gone home? i don't know. we'll never know, thank god. >> it's early morning here at 1121 cross street in little

rock, and the new school day is dawning. >> reporter: a year after the montgomery bus boycott, little rock became the stage for the next drama of the movement when local naacp leaders hand-picked nine black students and pressured the school board to enroll them at all white central high school. they were challenging the city to comply with the supreme court's 1954 decision in brown vs. board of education where the court ruled that all public schools must be integrated. >> ernest green, age 16, 12th grade. >> when they said, are you interested in transferring to central, i said, hey, why not? my attitude was that change was coming, i want to be a part of it. i'm ready to change the face of the south. >> reporter: the story took an unexpected turn when the governor defied the courts and

ordered the national guard to block the black students from entering the school. >> the first day we faced the arkansas national guard with bayonettes. they let the white students enter the campus and barred us from entrance. it was surreal. >> reporter: outside the school an angry crowd gathered. >> the minute they walk in, then that's when we walk out. >> it's not right. they have schools just as good as us. >> reporter: eight of the nine black students arrived together that first day. only elizabeth eckford whose family didn't own a telephone arrived alone. >> elizabeth didn't get the message that we were going to meet at the 14th street side of the school and not the 16th street side of the school. we had the protection of each other and this group of ministers and elizabeth didn't

have anybody. she really took the brunt of it that day. >> this black young teenager all by herself being frightened and screamed at, it's the first of a series of images showing how powerful and virulent southern white racism was. >> reporter: traumatized by the reaction of the ground elizabeth refused to speak to news crews. >> can you tell me your name, please? are you going to go to school here at central high? don't care to say anything, is that right? >> reporter: there was one journalist elizabeth agreed to talk to, moses newson a newspaper reporter for "the baltimore afro-american." >> when i heard about it and rushed over and she recognized me and she said she would talk to me.

you know, she sat there talking about what had happened to her, and she said -- as soon as they say we can go back, i'm going back and that just always sort of stuck in my mind. something that this 15-year-old girl was saying. >> reporter: after a three-week standoff in little rock, a federal judge ordered that the arkansas national guard be removed. the following monday, september 23rd, the black students once again attempted to enter the school. photographer earl davey and three black reporters including moses newson followed the students there. >> we were walking up 16th street, someone up front yelled

they're in our school and all hell broke loose. >> earl davey runs. someone tackles him. they take his camera and they smash it to the ground. l. alex wilson, the editor of "the tri-state defender" just keeps walking. still photographs caught that. well, take that and just magnify it 100 fold to show you what television was giving. >> you know, i looked at television and there was somebody beating mr. wilson. mr. wilson was just being pummeled. in fact, one of the guys said run, damn you, run. and he just kept walking. >> wilson creases his hat and puts it back on and he keeps walking. his expression doesn't change. >> l. alex wilson's decision not to run in defiance of the mob was rooted in an incident from his boyhood in florida.

>> as a kid l. alex wilson had seen the klan come to town and he ran and he hated himself for having done that and he said he would never run again. he's 49 years old. he's got nerve damage from what happened in little rock that day. three years later in 1960, age 51, he is dead. >> good evening, my fellow citizens. for a few minutes this evening i should like to speak to you about the serious situation that has arisen in little rock. mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts. >> reporter: within hours of eisenhower's announcement as the american public watched in shock and disbelief, a thousand federal troops marched into little rock and the arkansas national guard was federalized.

it was a huge television event the president speaking on tv, ordering federal troops into an american city, so some black kids to go to school. >> the fact that he used a thousand paratroopers to provide protection made a hell of a statement, especially in the black community. >> black people were used to the government being against them, not for them. so, the notion of troops being used for african-americans was a revolution, a revelation and a novelty. >> we were blessed by the fact that these images were shown by the media because there probably were other cases before us in which there was no media, no image, you know, if a tree falls in the forest, does anybody hear

it? >> reporter: before long, millions of americans would hear it and see it. age? $9.95? no way. $9.95? that's impossible. hi, i'm jonathan, a manager here at colonial penn life insurance company, to tell you it is possible. if you're age 50 to 85, you can get life insurance with options starting at just $9.95 a month. okay, jonathan, i'm listening. tell me more. just $9.95 a month for colonial penn's number one most popular whole life insurance plan. there are no health questions to answer and there are no medical exams to take. your acceptance is guaranteed. you can't be turned down because of your health, even if you have health problems or take medication. guaranteed acceptance? i like guarantees.

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♪ >> reporter: nearly every american heard about the little rock nine. the story gave a boost to the movement, and the movement gave a boost to the fledgling industry of television news. >> television was just breaking through to be the national

medium for news. not every american home had a television set. >> okay, come ahead, melba. >> we were sort of making it up as we went along. >> melba, how do you feel about going back to school on this second day? >> i feel pretty good about it, although it is sort of a nervous spot to be in. >> this was the world of 15-minute news. people like mike wallace. >> tonight we bring you a special interview with governor orval faubus. >> and john chancellor. >> we can report this morning is that -- >> were in little rock. they begin their careers. >> been what you expected or -- >> well, there are people who come up to me and say, you know, they began their evenings by seeing what we were doing. reality tv. we were early reality tv before we knew it. >> it was one of those fateful intersections in history that was very important, both for journalism and also for the african-american and the cause

for human rights in america. martin luther king's strategy of nonviolent direct action inspired a wave of young activists to take up the cause. >> king was able to energize young ministers, young students. he set a tone of "let's come out of these cathedrals, let's come out of these offices, and let's do something in the streets." >> beginning in february 1960, in cities from greensboro to nashville, black students sat down at lunch counters and refused to leave until they were served. sit-ins introduced a new, more confrontational tactic to the movement that provoked white segregationists to violence. then in may of 1961, 13 activists -- black and white -- calling themselves

"freedom riders," boarded two buses in washington, d.c., a trailways and a greyhound. their goal -- to desegregate interstate bus lines in the south. among the group's organizers were student leaders john lewis and diane nash. by now, the activists knew the crucial importance of media coverage and were leaving nothing to chance. >> we knew that if one of us did not interpret what we were doing to the press, somebody would step in and try to do it and get it all wrong. and so i was elected to be the coordinator. >> there is this story when diane nash and these guys are on the freedom rides, seigenthaler, who worked for kennedy, said, "they plan to kill you when you go to mississippi." >> my father, he and diane nash had a conversation, he didn't

want her to continue the freedom rides. he said, "you're gonna get somebody killed. you're gonna get somebody killed if you keep this up." and she said, "you don't understand, sir. we signed our last will and testament last night. we understand exactly what we're facing." >> in my capacity as coordinator several of the students who were about to get on the bus gave me sealed envelopes that i was to mail in the event of their death. >> their route would take them from virginia and the carolinas into the very core of the deep south, alabama and mississippi. in atlanta, martin luther king warned the freedom riders that he received word the buses would be attacked before they reached birmingham. undeterred, the riders continued on. the greyhound was the first to arrive in alabama. >> when they get to anniston,

some klansmen, white thugs, stop the bus. they firebomb it. there's a reporter, moses newson, on this bus, and neither he nor anyone on that bus imagines that they're going to be able to get out alive. >> editor has a close brush with death. when i found myself in that burning bus set on fire by the mob, that cold chilling realization that this might be it came over me. >> they were using boards and chains, daring people to come out and integrate alabama. i decided the best thing for me to do was to stick the camera up under my seat. i had no thoughts about stepping off the bus with a camera hanging around my neck. >> moses newson quite reasonably figured out that if they knew he was a journalist and not a freedom rider, that he would suffer an even greater

punishment than the freedom riders. reporters gathered at the birmingham bus station to await the arrival of the second bus. a mob of club-wielding segregationists waited there too. >> the bus came in. they collected around it. they dragged about six of the passengers out, both negro and white. they took them into corridors and alleys and began beating them, began hitting them with lead pipes. at that point someone behind me whispered in my ear and said, "someone here has identified you from having seen you on television. they're hunting for you now. you better get out." >> and i say segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever. >> the segregationist power understood that the press doing its job had become their enemy. >> we would like to have all the press, all the news media, right over here for a private

conference. >> in every way as strong and as dangerous to them and to jim crow and segregation as the civil rights protests. >> information media including the tv networks have publicized and dramatized the race issue far beyond its relative importance in today's world. >> they're cold and a little cramped, but not hungry. >> the people who hated us called us outside agitators thought that we were of a piece with the civil rights people, that we were hand in glove. >> it's all one sided. and the newspapers and the tv camera are one sided-too. they take pictures when they want to take pictures. >> one of their favorite epithets was to call us "white negroes" except they didn't put it quite that way. >> if i paint myself black, i'd be on tv every night. >> white bystanders harassed us with homemade clubs, cursing us and blaming the press as the cause of the demonstrations. >> standing against them are the segregationists. >> i covered a nighttime demonstration in marion, alabama.

somebody walked up behind me and hit me with an axe handle. somebody came up and asked me, he said, "do you need a doctor?" i put my hand behind my head, it was all bloody, and i said, "yeah, i think so." and he thrust his face right into mine, and he said, "we don't have doctors for people like you." it was personal. it was you. it was not bullets flying in the air that could hit you. it was you that they wanted to do harm to. >> of course there was danger. but the truth is that the number of times that we faced danger and the kind of danger we faced, was very small compared to that with those that took part in the movement. we bore witness to what was happening. we were not participants. what we did was say, "here it is. you face it in your living room as individuals, as a family, as a country."

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♪ >> reporter: six years after emmett till's murder, the state where he was killed, mississippi, emerged as a fortress of southern white racism. >> i love mississippi. i love, and i respect our

heritage. >> mississippi had always been just a place apart to me. it was the south africa of america. it was a place you didn't really want to put your foot. >> now, a civil rights maverick would strike at the venerable all white university of mississippi known as ole miss. >> university of mississippi had not had any black folks as students ever. an extremely single-minded young veteran, james meredith, decides he's going to go to ole miss and will not be deterred. >> i have decided that i, j.h. meredith, will register. [ applause ] >> one impediment is removed after another by the courts who keep saying "you can't keep the guy out." mississippi's governor,

ross barnett, had no intention of complying with the court order. he stood defiantly in the door of the registrar, blocking meredith's way. ole miss, he said, would remain all white. >> i, ross r. barnett, governor of the great and sovereign state of mississippi deny to you, james h. meredith, admission to the university of mississippi. >> this was such a strong, crazy reaction to this lone negro entering the university of mississippi. >> being on the ole miss campus this weekend is something like being in the eye of a hurricane. >> there was a real sense of foreboding among people including reporters and including myself of "no good can come of this." >> on the side of opposing james meredith, you had people flooding in from alabama and

other states who have nothing to do with the university of mississippi. >> literally hundreds of outsiders came pouring into the campus armed with shotguns, pistols, clubs. it was like a nazi rally. >> the mood was total anarchy. i was the first black woman, full time reporter, at "the washington post." i was not part of the team that was covering the events on campus. there is no way. as black reporters, we would have all been dead if we had tried to be on campus. >> hundreds of u.s. marshals sent by president kennedy to protect meredith poured onto the ole miss campus. >> there was this amassing of forces, federal forces coming in from memphis, military troops coming in. >> the federal marshals had

seized control of the lyceum which was the chief administrative office on campus. it was where we assumed that meredith would come to register as a student. so a crowd of several hundred people gathered in front of the lyceum. >> the first arrival on the campus was greeted without incident, but then when word spread that negro air force veteran james meredith was on the campus, the fighting started. >> it developed into this gunfight that went on for hours. i sought refuge in a girls' dormitory. >> the photographers did not want to use flashes any more than a television camera person wanted to use a big light because you would beat up someone who was using a flash, and, in fact, they did. >> reporter: before the night was over, the violence had claimed two lives.

one was a french journalist named paul guihard. >> he had a bright red beard and red hair. probably part of the reason that he died is because he was clearly identified as a member of the press. >> his body was found over near behind a women's dormitory, and he's been shot at close range. unsolved to this very day. >> reporter: by the next morning, the riot was quelled. under heavy guard, james meredith was finally allowed to register and attend class at the university of mississippi. he remained enrolled under the protection of u.s. marshals until he completed his coursework the following year, becoming the university's first black graduate. >> mississippi mood -- hope and fear. the hope is that meredith signals the coming of the light for all of them.

the fear is that the inevitable changes will bring further death, destruction and repercussions. >> go home. go home. >> reporter: what can the past tell us about the future? >> this city is run by criminal -- >> we're not nonviolent, we'll kill these people if we have to. >> nazis, go home! nazis, go home! >> reporter: as writer william faulkner said, "the past is never dead." >> i'll shoot you! >> it's not even past. >> i think anybody who witnessed what happened on the campus of uva couldn't help but think that maybe the hands of time have swept backwards. >> my blood, my blood. i know all of this is my blood, yo. >> jews will not replace us!

>> ole miss and uva, what the two have in common of course was this violence, this hatred on display unapologetically. >> oh, my god! >> things that we thought we moved past. a lot of people thought how far have we really come? $9.95 at my age? $9.95? no way. $9.95? that's impossible.here an life insurance company, to tell you it is possible. if you're age 50 to 85, you can get life insurance with options starting at just $9.95 a month.

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>> you are god's children. >> we ain't going to let nobody turn us around. >> one of the reasons why martin luther king was so successful was he understood television. we deliberately had demonstrations before 12:00. and in order to get the film to new york, they had to leave by 1:00. >> we cannot in all good conscience obey such an injunction. >> dr. king and his staff were very, very savvy. they knew exactly what was going on. >> you -- you want me to just make a statement and not interview. you don't want an interview. >> and they strategized how they could use their coverage to their advantage. >> we must be willing to fill up

the jails all over the state of georgia. [ applause ] >> there's nobody that could make an hour-long speech any better than him, but for the 6:00 news, you had to get your message across. it had to be 30 seconds or less. >> the time is always right to do right, and we cannot wait. we cannot continue to accept these conditions of oppression. >> king would dramatize and force the media to deal with the issue. i've got to grab your attention without losing your interest and respect. and king mastered that. >> but for all of king's sophistication, he could still be outmaneuvered by a clever adversary and risk losing control of the civil rights story. >> i've often been told that i was welcomed down here, but i didn't know whether i would be or not. >> laurie, l-a-u-r-i-e,

pritchett is the police chief of albany, georgia, and he set about doing things differently. >> king used the students' method of direct confrontation in albany, georgia, however, a. however, police chief prit chet countered the nonviolent demonstrations with non-violent arrests. >> dr. king thinks he's going to the television cameras. >> a ban on demonstrations has brought more than 1,500 arrests of desegregationists so far. >> they refused to do so. >> you're under arrest. >> he jails dr. king and a lot of other demonstrators. but his goal is not to let them have their way and stay in jail long enough to generate a